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Yoruba Translation

Overview

We are a translation & localization agency with a specialist focus on African languages. The rise of Nigeria as a West African economic powerhouse has resulted in a sharp rise in the demand for Yoruba translations.

We are proud of our ability to provide clients with a truly complete language service. When coming to us you can rest assured that you will receive:

  • Top-drawer customer service
  • Talented linguists, localizers and translators
  • Dedicated in-house Project Management
  • Value for money
  • Service with a smile

Our breadth of experience is second to none, especially when it comes to Africa. We work with a range of clients across industry. We work with all formats and platforms. We work with all languages. We work to all deadlines.

To discover how we can help you, please contact one of the team who would love to discuss your particular needs.

Professional Yoruba Translators

Our Yoruba translators come from a variety of backgrounds. Every one comes with a particular skill set and is assigned to translation jobs according to their skills.

Need a translator who understands marketing? Or one with hands-on knowledge of oil & gas? How about one with legal experience? No matter what you need, we have the people to make it happen.

All members of our Yoruba translation team are professionals. This means that they come with language/translation specific qualifications and/or skill specific experience. So one translator may be an academic able to translate from Yoruba from English on teaching methodologies; the next one might be a bilingual professional who worked as a lawyer and now concentrates on translating legal texts.

In short, our team is made up of people that know their subject matter and understand how a translation should be carried out.

If you would like more information on our  translators, please contact us and we can explain more.

Quick Facts
  • Alternate names & spellings:  Yooba, Yariba, édé Yòrúba, Yòrúba.
  • Language ISO code: yo/ yor
  • Number of speakers: roughly 20 million speakers
  • Writing system:  Latin- based alphabet
  • Spoken in: primarily in Nigeria, but also in Benin and Togo.
About Yoruba

The Yoruba language belongs to the Niger-Congo language family and is part of the Defoid category of the Benue- Congo subgroup of languages. Yoruba has the largest number of native speakers within Niger-Congo family, since Swahili (approx. 50 million) has more speakers but these learn it as a second language.

The language, along with Hausa, Igbo and Fulani, is one of the most important languages of Nigeria and is associated with the ethnic group of the same name, the Yoruba group, which in turn is one of the most three largest  people clusters in Nigeria.

From all its speakers, the biggest proportion of Yoruba speakers lives in Nigeria, even though the official language of the country is English. The same happens in Benin and Togo, where the official language in both countries is French.

However, in the case of Nigeria, more specifically in the southwest part of the country, where most the speakers are concentrated, Yoruba can be considered as the lingua franca of the country, together with Hausa and Igbo. In this region, Yoruba has developed so much that it is not only commonly used by people, but also taught in the schools and universities and used by the media. In this region, Nigerian educated society is bilingual (English and Yoruba), using Yoruba in family occasions and English in the official ones. As it happened with other West African countries, English language was introduced to the Yoruba community by the Portuguese back in 1821 as a result of the trade relationships between Europe and Africa.

As a consequence of the co-existence of Yoruba and English languages, it is often people mix both languages resulting in a form called Yoruglish.

Yoruba dialects

Depending on the geographic location, there are around twenty different Yoruba dialects which can be classified into three main types according the area where they are used:

  • Northwest Yoruba
  • Central Yoruba
  • Southeast Yoruba

However, it is important to point out that after the translation of the Bible made by a Yoruba speaker in the late 19th century this written form of the language adopted in the translation has been maintained until nowadays as the “standard” written form of the language, form that has even been accepted by all dialects. This written form is the one learned in the school and used by the media and it helps to create a sense of unity among all Yoruba dialects.

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